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If you pull up to a respectable-looking couple at the traffic lights and see them banging their heads like something out of Wayne s World , they will probably be listening to Mariss Jansons s recording of Le sacre du printemps with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. This visceral account confirms that Jansons and the RCO enjoy the most thrilling conductor-orchestra partnership around. Flawless tuning, searing articulation, unflagging energy and sumptuous sound combine to devastating effect. Together with a seductive reading of L Oiseau de feu , this is Stravinsky to make the most venerable heads bang. --Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday, 29 June 2008
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has always traded on the subtleties of its instrumental sounds, which has made it ideal for interpreting such widely diverse music as Bruckner and Ravel.
It puts this distinctive colour to good use in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, reminding us that there is far more to the work than the crash, bang and wallop of its climactic dances.
Mariss Jansons has obviously gone to some care to realise the detail of the composer's orchestral picture, so that in the famous melee in Part 1, for example, where numerous different metres are set against each other, you feel you can hear every one of them. And the gradually massing counterpoint of melodic ideas that leads off from the opening bassoon solo is expertly balanced.
If this suggests an over-crafted performance, the result is far from the case: while it might not have the edge-of-seat danger that some accounts can still convey, nearly a century after the score's infamous premiere, it still has plenty of visceral power and rhythmic bite.
The orchestra's sound is also ideal for the more Romantic sound-world of The Firebird. But the one bone of contention with this release is that nowhere, apart from buried deep in the booklet note, does it spell out that it is the 1919 suite being played, rather than the full-length ballet. But this slip can almost be forgiven by the sheer quality of the music-making. Even more than in the Rite, the textures have wonderful luminosity and the playing itself is remarkably opulent - in the limpid phrasing of the "Ronde des princesses", for instance - and rhythmically vital in the "Danse infernale".
In both works, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw's famous acoustics, magically caught by the engineering team, illuminate and enhance the orchestra's playing. --Matthew Rye, Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2008
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has always traded on the subtleties of its instrumental sounds, which has made it ideal for interpreting such widely diverse music as Bruckner and Ravel.
It puts this distinctive colour to good use in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, reminding us that there is far more to the work than the crash, bang and wallop of its climactic dances.
Mariss Jansons has obviously gone to some care to realise the detail of the composer's orchestral picture, so that in the famous melee in Part 1, for example, where numerous different metres are set against each other, you feel you can hear every one of them. And the gradually massing counterpoint of melodic ideas that leads off from the opening bassoon solo is expertly balanced.
If this suggests an over-crafted performance, the result is far from the case: while it might not have the edge-of-seat danger that some accounts can still convey, nearly a century after the score's infamous premiere, it still has plenty of visceral power and rhythmic bite.
The orchestra's sound is also ideal for the more Romantic sound-world of The Firebird. But the one bone of contention with this release is that nowhere, apart from buried deep in the booklet note, does it spell out that it is the 1919 suite being played, rather than the full-length ballet. But this slip can almost be forgiven by the sheer quality of the music-making. Even more than in the Rite, the textures have wonderful luminosity and the playing itself is remarkably opulent - in the limpid phrasing of the "Ronde des princesses", for instance - and rhythmically vital in the "Danse infernale".
In both works, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw's famous acoustics, magically caught by the engineering team, illuminate and enhance the orchestra's playing. --Matthew Rye, Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2008
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not a very successfull recording effort for this SACD...,
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This review is from: Stravinsky - L'Oiseau de Feu / Le Sacre du Printemps (Audio CD)
To the topic of this and other SACD on the Concertgebouw/Label recording properties:
The local Dutch recording engineers hired by the Concertgebouw to "immortalize" this or other live concert for posterity and market it in the SACD version, in the process they have come up with a faulty product. Be it as it may, from the stand point of interpretation (reading) which is not the concern here, the end product is disappointing in the Audio sense. The equipment used by the recording team here might easily be one the most advanced there is; It is capable of capturing the sound in almost all of its clarity, with great wide frequency-range and sometimes great dynamics, but the concept of where to put the microphones and where the sound is captured from is wrong, wrong, wrong. It is wrong in the sense that they offer us a sit at the back of the Concertgebouw hall balcony, distanced and far away from where the action takes place, when there is so much better prospective over the orchestra and hall acoustics from middle of the hall, or from a sit closer to the orchestra. We should not dream here of the golden age, the dawn of the stereo era (Reiner/Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra, a two channel recording technique immortalized by Leslie Chase for RCA, 1954) that would be a bit like comparing oranges with apples. But instead, we can compare various recordings from this present age - recordings made on location at the same Concertgebouw hall with this SACD recording at hand: To compare, take the Rachmaninov symphony 1 & 2 (DDD): It has all of the sonic components to boost: Great tonality, great dynamic range - AND - great outlook on the orchestra, great sound-stage and retrieval of hall ambience - all this if compared to the present SACD (the Concertgebouw own label) - the SACD sound stage will barely expand beyond the two front speakers and will sound like a somewhat stretched mono recording; no true spread, no true soundstage (multi-microphones technique went wrong?) Note in this regards recordings made by Decca and by Philips on location at the Concertgebouw hall were much more successful in conveying the total sound--picture: Take the Philips ADD recording of Stravinsky/ Firebird, Petruschka, Rite of Spring / Concertgebouw/Colin Davis; Take the Rachmaninov Symphonies, (Decca DDD recording) with Ashkenazy. Take the Philips ADD recording of Ravel with Haitink, take the Grieg/Schumann with Arrau and Haitink, and more, much more - all have this property of conveying a concert-hall "feel". The decision of the Dutch recording team made for the Concertgebouw label of how and from where to capture the sound - I am sure - will not get down the history pages as great achievements the way Mohr-Layton & Leslie Chase (RCA); Cornall-Moorfoot, Culshaw-Perry, Kenneth Wilkinson (Decca) and other team achievements for Philips too. Simply put; the Concertgebouw "sound" on their propriety label is too distanced, taken from too far away, has a tunnel-like sound-view - a strange and faulty approach to sound engineering. As such, the Concertgebouw own label is a disappointment.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Firebird,
By
This review is from: Stravinsky - L'Oiseau de Feu / Le Sacre du Printemps (Audio CD)
Good sound - insane dynamic range so watch you don't burn your speakers out. Keep the volume lower than normal! The 5.1 surround sound is very good. The CD part also sounds great. Recommended.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding new versions of two well-known works,
By
This review is from: Stravinsky - L'Oiseau de Feu / Le Sacre du Printemps (Audio CD)
It takes a truly inspired orchestra and an imaginative conductor to justify yet another disc with these two popular and multi-recorded Igor Stravinsky works. Yet, it seems that these live recordings by Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under its chief conductor Mariss Jansons have done just that.
Both the "Firebird" (here in its 1919 Suite) and "Sacre du printemps" were culled from three different live concerts in 2006 and 2007, and the result is totally enthralling. Overall, Mariss Jansons who leads the orchestra since September 2004, opts for an essentially dansante approach of both works (anybody familiar with his much earlier Tchaikovsky Symphonies cycle will know what that means). They were after all made for the stage, although in the hands of many conductors focused on modernity the choreographic base of the scores becomes secondary. Jansons also looks back to the 19th century, reminding us that Stravinsky's roots are to be found in the sound worlds of a Rimsky-Korsakov or a Tchaikovsky. In this respect Jansons exactly knows how to exploit the qualities of his orchestra to the full, allowing his fabulous woodwind and strings sections to turn the Firebird into a ravishing feast of colour and magic (Danse and variation of the Firebird, and the Berceuse). Just as in certain passages of Sacre he even finds an appropriate (Slavonic) touch of sadness and melancholy, which I haven't heard that often in these works (Introduction of 2nd section). This basically atmospheric approach sheds a different light on an old warhorse, in other hands often limited to a slap-in-your-face demonstration of orchestral virtuosity and loudness. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra provides virtuosity aplenty, but it's balanced by moments of reflection, and while the ensemble produces power like none else, there's no sign of aggressiveness. After listening to this disc one is tempted to agree with the hype that the Royal Concertgebouw is indeed "the best orchestra in the world." Or better said, the orchestra of the old days of Bernard Haitink is back. The strings are breathtakingly beautiful (those pianissimi!), while the woodwinds and brass boast so much character they easily sound like solo parts. The sheer beauty of the sound makes one forget these are live recordings. The DSD recording is in the demonstration bracket and the warm, spacious acoustics of the Concertgebouw hall are rendered in a near-ideal way. The sections of the orchestra are exactly reproduced in space with a beautifully judged balance. Everything is rendered with taste and even during the sonic climaxes there is never any hardness or shrillness. A minus perhaps is that the cover of the disc doesn't specify it contains only the suite of the Firebird, not the complete ballet. But otherwise this is an outstanding release. Even collectors owning several versions will find that Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra still have plenty to say in this repertoire.
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